Gilles Magnus tops opening practice at Jeddah
Comtoyou Racing driver Gilles Magnus set the fastest lap time of the first free practice session at Jeddah, host of the final round of the 2022 FIA WTCR season.
The session started under clear and sunny skies as track temperatures hit 43º.
The free practice was largely trouble-free, but several drivers had lap times deleted because of track limits, with the two Zengo drivers Rob Huff and Dániel Nagy (Cupra Leon Competición), and Münnich’s Néstor Girolami (Honda Civic Type R TCR) the most affected.
The last few minutes of the session saw plenty of track action, with the entire field taking to the track in the final moments.
Magnus set the fastest lap time of the session with 1:17.024, with championship leader Mikel Azcona (Hyundai Elantra N TCR) completing a last lap effort to be second, 0.047 seconds behind.
Audi driver Nathanäel Berthon finished third, two-tenths behind his team-mate, followed by team-mate Viktor Davidovski, who completed a competitive session in fourth place, 0.378 seconds off the pace.
Honda drivers Attila Tassi (Engstler Motorsport) and Néstor Girolami were next, followed by the Audi of Tom Coronel and the Cupra of Huff, eighth on his last lap, 0.537 seconds behind Magnus.
BRC Racing Team’s Norbert Michelisz finished ninth, followed by Franco Girolami (Audi RS 3 LMS) who completed the top tenth.
“It will be difficult to be in the top ten this weekend, the Hyundais are going well and we are struggling,” explained Girolami after the session. “I’ve had a lot of understeering and it has been difficult to turn into the corner, and this is why I’ve been out of track limits so many times.”
The second free practice session has been brought forward and is scheduled for 15:30 local time (CET – 2 hours).
